HEALTH & WELLBEING
The Hidden Disability Hearing Loss
“Once you’ve lost your hearing, it will never come back” C
oncerns have been expressed by the Naval Families Federation Chair over the hidden, and
therefore often overlooked, disability of hearing loss and deafness within the Armed Forces.
A tri-Federation briefing was offered on the subject by Brigadier Robin Cordell, a medical staff officer responsible for medical policy and strategy, and his colleague, Wg Cdr Tim Greenish. The Brigadier was very reassuring on the level of research that has been done to explore how noise in a military environment can impact on hearing and it was illuminating to hear just how much work goes on behind the scenes in the medical policy world to address health-related issues.
As far as hearing preservation and protection is concerned, risk assessments to international standards are carried out in
Service environments and much progress has been made in the development of enhanced protective personal equipment.
All Service personnel have their hearing tested on entry to service and at frequent intervals thereafter. Personnel failing a standard hearing test twice will be referred for more clinical testing and, where necessary, medical limitations imposed to protect him/her from unnecessary risk of further hearing loss.
Some hearing loss is natural. Age, gender, and even smoking, can all be influencing factors in hearing loss and it is sometimes difficult to attribute hearing loss to service, hence the need to take regular measurements.
The Federation Chairs were assured that the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme does take account of hearing loss and deafness and that the Service provides high quality hearing aids
for those who need them. For the unfortunate minority whose hearing degrades to such a level that they can no longer serve, future provision of hearing aids becomes an NHS responsibility.
All three Federations expressed the view that, in line with the Armed Forces Covenant commitments on prosthetics, Service personnel requiring hearing equipment post service should be guaranteed a similar quality of support on transfer to civilian medical services.
Anyone worried about possible hearing loss is encouraged to seek professional help. The officers also flagged the excellent work of ‘Action on Hearing Loss’
www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk where there is a particularly helpful free hearing test that anyone can do online.
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Envoy Spring 2012
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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